Joanne Sloan Allen is a professional show jumper, mother of three and manager of both Sycamore Horse Farm and the WKD International show jumping team. She also produced – and still owns – Suma’s Zorro (ISH), who claimed the $1,000,000 Rolex Grand Slam at Spruce Meadows with Sameh el Dahan in 2018.

Helen Sharp (HS): You haven’t chosen an easy path in life; show jumping is a tough business. How do you manage to keep Sycamore Horse Farm, the WKD show jumping team and your family going as successfully as you have?

Joanne Sloan-Allen (JSA): I try to keep things very structured; I have an outstanding team of staff behind me. There are so many people involved – what you see when Sameh or myself go into the ring, those few minutes are a culmination of weeks of work, with everyone working together. We have a great team of farriers and dentists, our coach Dennis Flannery, brilliant grooms and loyal help with the kids. It’s a huge operation!

Sameh and I have a successful partnership based on trust, similar values and defined by a shared sense of humour. We have worked together for the last 10 years – a partnership like that doesn’t work if you are not best friends and if you don’t each other’s back.

Joanne Sloan Allen with her star mare, Zorro at home at Sycamore Stables, Ballyclare, Co. Antrim.

HS: You have achieved many successes that most can only dream of, including placing in the World Cup Qualifiers in Morocco, riding and producing Pepperpot (ISH), who was subsequently bought by Bill Gates’ for his daughter Jennifer and perhaps most famously producing and owning Sumas Zorro. Can you tell me a little about the horses that excite you most at the moment?

JSA: I really enjoy all the young horses and starting them off on their journeys. That’s something I get a real kick out of. WKD Aimez-Moi (ISH), who was second in Paris recently, is winning many classes in the Global Champions. I produced and jumped her in her first one-star grand prix to be third in Poland as an eight-year-old. I’m very proud of her, and I love seeing her go on now with Sameh to that top level.

As for Sumas Zorro, I don’t even have words to describe what this mare means to not just me, but to everyone here at Sycamore. There are so many people involved in this mare’s journey – I rode her myself up to ranking class level, everybody who has ever ridden her will tell you the same thing: she wants to give you everything.

HS: You have described Sumas Zorro as, “an example of all that makes the Irish horse great – a mixture of heritage, breeds and blood and a fighting spirit”. She was bred in Co Kilkenny by Marily Power and Susan Lanigan O’Keeffe and owned by you since she was three-months-old. She jumped a five-bar gate the first day she arrived, just because it was there. Could you tell me what she means to you now she is slowing down?

JSA: Zorro lives for jumping; she loves it; lockdown was hard for her, it was hard as a team to keep her happy; we had to try and keep her ticking over, keep her fit. The worst thing for us was knowing when the Olympics were postponed, that her one chance of shining at that top level was gone. She is 17 now, and we felt Tokyo was not an option for her at that age.

So this year, she’s winding down slightly. She doesn’t need to prove anything to us. The hardest thing for me now is trying to imagine going to shows without Zorro.

What her next journey will be, we are not sure. I tried to take some embryos during lockdown, but we weren’t successful. I feel like she is one of those mares that until she is completely relaxed and out of the sport, she won’t breed; she is such an athlete. Zorro is not a horse that would be happy just standing in the field. She loves jumping, she lives for it, and a horse like that, if you throw them in the field, they just melt away.

HS: It has been said that horses are a mirror and I can see Zorro’s characteristics in you and vice versa. I imagine there is plenty you want to achieve; what are your next sporting ambitions?

JSA: “I suppose it’s not well-known, but for the last few years, I’ve been battling severe back problems. I was lucky to get significant surgery recently where the surgeon reconstructed my back – I have a lot of metal in there now! However, it was my choice to continue in the sport I love; I wasn’t ready to stop jumping, which was the only other option. I was fortunate to get through the operation safely, and now I’m rehabbing, which is frustrating for me as I’m a very active person. My ambition is to get back up to grand prix, but I know this won’t happen overnight.

HS: You are an inspiration to many young Irish riders, but who do you look to as a hero when you need bolstering?

JSA: Every athletic female that keeps competing and also manages a family. I have so much admiration for those women because I know it’s tough to continue; you have to be strong in your head, to fight the guilt that you have, believing that by doing one thing, it is at the expense of another. It’s the things that people don’t see, the hours in the dark, the hours rushing in to see you’ve got the children fed, getting them picked up from school, training, finding new horses; for a lot of women, it becomes impossible. When I see Edwina Topps Alexander, Laura Kraut and Beezie Madden out there at the top level, I take my hat off to them all.

HS: What advice do you have for anyone wanting to follow in your footsteps and they want to go straight in at top level?

JSA: Don’t expect too much too soon. I see a lot of kids now, and they want to go straight at the top level. It’s good to have a goal, don’t get me wrong, but I see a lot of kids and the total mind set is Europeans, Europeans, Europeans – they don’t realise that there is so much more to it than that. It’s like anything in life; you have to do an apprenticeship. You cannot possibly expect to walk in at top level and know everything – I have been doing this for many years and am still learning.

HS: Why horses?

JSA: When a horse looks you in the eye, it looks into your soul. I love watching them in the field, how they interact with each other, how intelligent they are. I love finding the character of each horse. I love watching them develop; I enjoy trying to get the best out of each one. The horses are like my children, each one has its strength and weakness and my job is to promote the strength and help overcome the weaknesses. Horses are so kind, so willing; they do so many things for us that they don’t have to do. A horse is so powerful, half a tonne of horse, if they did not want to do what we ask them to do they would not do it, horses enjoy their work, I see it with Zorro, she wants to go in the ring, she wants to jump.